diff --git a/xwords4/relay/xwrelay.sh b/xwords4/relay/xwrelay.sh
index e46ad56fa..e59124ae9 100755
--- a/xwords4/relay/xwrelay.sh
+++ b/xwords4/relay/xwrelay.sh
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ id SERIAL
 ,hid INTEGER
 ,token INTEGER
 ,ctime TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
-,stime TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NULL
+,stime TIMESTAMP DEFAULT 'epoch'
 ,devid INTEGER
 ,msg BYTEA
 ,msg64 TEXT